Adults Reconsider Children's Books for Curiosity and Wonder

A newsletter from a major publication recommends rereading children's books as a way to recover curiosity and openness that many adults set aside. The edition frames the practice as a return to flexible thinking rather than a retreat into nostalgia.

Anna Holmes described keeping her children's books after moving across the country in 2020 while donating adult literary classics. She presented the volumes as objects that preserve a way of engaging with the world that adulthood often discourages.

Barnett stated that dismissing children's books means failing to recognize the potential of children. Holmes extended the point by saying that adults who dismiss the books also fail to recognize the potential of people. Children accept strange rules and tolerate nonsense when a story delights them. Adults often replace that openness with efficiency and skepticism, according to the newsletter.

Rereading children's books is presented as a method for moving through the world with more curiosity and less certainty. The newsletter suggests this approach increases willingness to be surprised. The edition also lists related articles on children's literature and invites readers to share images that spark a sense of awe.